OVERVIEW

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

OVERVIEW

NOTE 1 OVERVIEW

Business

Forward Industries, Inc. (“Forward”, “we”, “our” or the “Company”) is a fully integrated design, development and manufacturing solution provider for top tier medical and technology customers worldwide. As a result of the continued expansion of our design and development capabilities through our wholly-owned subsidiaries, we are now able to introduce proprietary products to the market from concepts brought to us from a number of different sources, both inside and outside the Company.

Liquidity

For the six months ended March 31, 2022, the Company generated a net loss of $176,000, and $360,000 of cash flows from operating activities. We believe our existing cash balance and working capital will be sufficient to meet our liquidity needs through at least May 31, 2023.

Impact of COVID-19

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact the retail and OEM distribution segments of our business. The increase in global consumer demand, coupled with the global shipping container shortage, dramatically increased demand for both ocean freight and ground transportation. These factors led to a significant increase in freight costs, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region and most notably in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022 (“Fiscal 2022”). Labor shortages at U.S. ports and in ground transportation services caused container ships to spend a significant amount of time waiting for goods to be unloaded and to arrive at our warehouses. These factors caused an increase in the demand for and cost of ground transportation and delayed consumer availability for many of our products in the first half of Fiscal 2022. The timing and extent of these COVID-19 related transportation disruptions is still largely unknown but are expected to continue throughout Fiscal 2022.

The effects of the pandemic had a lesser impact on the design segment of our business. Rising inflation caused an increase in the cost of acquiring and maintaining our employees. The timing and extent of future inflation is difficult to predict, but we expect these rising costs to have a more significant impact in the second half of Fiscal 2022.

The effects of COVID-19 may further impact our business in ways we cannot predict, and such impacts could be significant. The current economic impact may continue to negatively impact our results of operations, cash flows and financial position in future periods as well as that of our customers, including their ability to pay for our services and to choose to allocate their budgets to new or existing projects which may or may not require our services. The long-term financial impact on our business cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. As a result, the effects of COVID-19 may not be fully reflected in our financial results until future periods.

Until the effects of the pandemic have fully receded, we expect business conditions to remain challenging. In response to these challenges, we will continue to focus on those factors that we can control: closely managing and controlling our expenses; aligning our design and development schedules with demand in a proactive manner to minimize our cash operating costs; pursuing further improvements in the productivity and effectiveness of our development, selling and administrative activities and, where appropriate, taking advantage of opportunities to enhance our business growth and strategy.